


The New Secretary

by HoneyKitty



Category: The Simpsons
Genre: Age Difference, F/M, Gen, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Multi, Older Man/Younger Woman, Other, Slow Burn, Why Did I Write This?, lana del rey gets me, old man kink, really slow burn i warn you
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:41:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24089824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HoneyKitty/pseuds/HoneyKitty
Summary: Mr.Burns only hired her to watch her squirm and break under the pressure of his cruelty, toying with her like a cat with a mouse. Now his personal secretary and assistant to Smithers, Katrina is determined to win over her bitter boss and prove herself as a wise investment for the company. However, things begin to change as the older man and the new secretary start to bond unexpectedly and something surprising blossoms between the two of them, perhaps much to Smither's chagrin.
Relationships: Charles Montgomery Burns/Original Character(s), Mr. Burns / OC
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	1. The Interview

It was a new day, a fresh start. I was hopeful as I looked up at the Springfield Powerplant as I stepped out of my car.

"This is it, Katrina. Don't blow it." I murmured to myself as I made my way across the large parking lot and up to the front door. 

I had come in for an in person interview to work as a secretary at the plant. Nothing I hadn't done before at other businesses. Make calls, send emails, take notes. It was a pretty easy gig, for me anyways, and the best part was usually it meant your own office where you didn't have to deal directly with anyone over you, that stuff was reserved for personal assistants and the like. Others would be the go between while most of my work was sitting behind a computer and arranging calendars. What I needed more than anything else was this job, I was out of income after getting fired from the last place unfairly and having to pay legal bills after a fire that started in the apartment under mine sent most of my things up in flames. I couldn't screw this up, I could barely afford to pay my phone bill at this point. I needed this job and it seemed so perfect, I just had to ace this interview.

I took in a deep breath, closing my eyes in the moment, then slowly exhaled to try and calm my rising anxiety as I heaved open the heavy glass front door.

"Hey, look! The UberEats delivery girl is here!" a man shouted immediately while pointing at me.

_Oh god, UberEats? Did I look that under dressed? Maybe I should have worn a suit or something instead of just a blouse and pants. Even a blazer would have been an upgrade maybe? Ohh, this was already going south and I had only just literally barely stepped through the door._

"Ooh, the donuts are here!" another rather large man shouted as he began towards me.

"Uh, sorry but I think you've got me confused with someone else." I awkwardly smiled.

The large man slowed to a stop, his excitement fading fast, "But...the donuts?"

"I'm not an UberEats delivery person. I don't have any donuts." I shrugged, still trying to smile through the odd encounter.

"Wait a second, if you're not a delivery person - what are you doing here?" the other man, who I now realized was brunette and tall with a thick northern accent, asked.

"Uh oh, she probably didn't get the memo. Burns isn't letting in anymore reporters inside the plant." a black man explained joining the conversation.

"Reporter?" I questioned in shock.

_Why were they assuming I was here for literally any and all reasons other than as an employee? Were they sexist or just stupid? Were they messing with me?_

"Look, my name is Katrina Cabot. I'm not a reporter or a delivery service, I'm here for-" my words were cut off as another voice interrupted.

"Cabot??" a man with glasses all but exclaimed as he came around the corner with two coffee's in hand. He was visibly shaken upon looking at me. I could feel my cheeks blushing in embarrassment at the escalating situation.

_Oh god, now I just wanted to crawl into a hole. They all hated me immediately, was it because my age? The way I was dressed? My gender??_

"Yes?" I cringed to reply.

He stepped over closer to me as the other men began to scatter. "I'm sorry, there must be some sort of mistake or something. You are the K. Cabot asked to come in for a face to face interview?"

"The very same, yes." I answered, trying to fake a calm expression.

"Oh no. I'm....I'm so sorry but-" he began before someone interrupted him.

"Smithers! What's taking so long?" a voice coming from the man's pocket questioned.

I couldn't help but flash a look to the man's pocket before returning to look him in the eyes.

"D'oh. Uh, hang on a second will you?" the man, Smithers, asked me before turning his back and setting a coffee down on a nearby table then speaking into something he pulled from his pocket.

"Sure..." I answered, not that he cared or even heard.

I looked around at my surroundings for a long moment, trying to politely ignore the conversation going on between this Smithers person and whoever the voice was, surely coming from some sort of beeper like device or smartwatch or something. It felt like a while passed before the man finally turned back around to me, I pulled a smile back on. I really needed this paycheck, I needed this job so badly.

"I...Well, I can't believe I'm saying this but....Mr.Burns will see you for your interview now." Smithers answered, clearly confused but I didn't care.

A huge geniune smile crossed my face, "Now? Oh, that's great!"

"Eh, yeah...um, follow me." he reached to pick up the second coffee but I quickly darted in front of him and picked it up in my grasp.

"Here, let me help you with that." I grinned, eager to earn any gratitude or positive opinions I could.

"Oh! Uh, well thanks." He smiled a bit, with a friendly chuckle. He seemed unused to others helping him out, even in such a small way.

"No problem." I grinned as he began leading me through the industrial powerplant.

As we moved through the halls I tried chatting with him a bit in passing, "So I didn't catch your name back there."

"Smithers. Mr.Smithers." he replied politely.

I nodded, still holding the hot coffee. "Katrina Cabot." I responded re-introducing myself in a friendly reminding way.

"Uh, Katrina. I..." he began, stopping in front of a set of large double doors. "You seem like a nice person and I just feel the need to warn you-"

"Warn me?" I raised a confused brow.

"Well, not warn but...well, yeah I guess warn you about Mr.B-" his words got cut off as his pocket buzzed again, getting another notification of something no doubt. "Oh, what's the point? You'll find out soon enough." Smithers sighed as he pushed open the doors and began inside.

I felt a bit apprehensive but I couldn't let something so trivial as his small comment get between myself and such a promising job. I pulled on a happy face and stepped into the room, immediately spotting the large grand desk someone sat at, the chair turned away hiding it's inhabitant.

"Mr. Burns-?" Smithers asked.

"Blast it, Smithers! Where the devil have you been?" the voice, hidden behind the chair, went off.

"Sir, I told you I ran into -" Smithers was interrupted by the angry voice again,

"I've been waiting in here for far too long waiting for my coffee!"

I instantly glanced down at the hot coffee in my hands and moved to the desk, setting it down for the voice with a smile.

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, Smithers that-" the voice stopped as I looked up from the coffee to find the chair swiveled around with an old man staring me in the eye as shocked to see me as I was to see him.

I wouldn't allow my smile to falter, "It's hot." I released the coffee and took a step back from the desk politely.

"Smithers?" the old man, who I recognized from the power plant's website as the one and only Mr.Burns, asked his gaze not leaving me.

"Yes, sir?"

"There's a woman standing in front of my desk right now, correct?" he questioned.

"Um, yes sir." Smithers answered confused.

"Oh, phew. I thought for a moment perhaps my mind had begun to lose itself. Ha ha."

I glanced between the two men, utterly confused as to what was happening.

"Now with that cleared up," Mr.Burns snatched up his coffee, "Why the devil is there a woman in my office?!" he raged at Smithers.

My smile dropped instantly.

_Wow, just like that. Open sexism. Why did I expect any different from such an evil old guy?_

"She's the Cabot I told you about, Sir."

"I thought she was a man?"

"Apparently our papers got it wrong, sir."

"Get her out of here, I don't hire women!"

"Wait, please! I may be female but I'm a real hard worker and I need this job. Just give me a chance?" I pleaded.

Mr.Burns looked over me and seemed to try and look away from me again, "Oh god, Smithers, she's talking to me."

"Now, listen here! You have some gall to treat a woman this way! You need a secretary, I'm the best damn secretary you could hire and you're going to turn me away based on nothing but your own predecided and frankly wrong opinion on my gender." I argued.

"I'm so sorry, Miss Cabot. Please, let me show you-" Smithers tried to lead me out of the room but I wouldn't have it.

"You know it's decisions like these that lead businesses run by old stuffy idiots to eventually crumble and fall. You didn't even look at my credentials and I assure you, I have quite the extensive list, for absolutely no reason other than your misconceptions about me before even speaking to me. You know I can even take that, but then to talk as if I'm not standing right in front of you??"

Mr. Burns glared to me as Smithers grew more uncomfortable in the situation.

"You know, with how angry I am right now I would say something like I hope your company rots and dies but right now that's not a hope, it's a promise." I hissed, shocked at myself for being so heated but I guess desperation can lead you to behave rashly.

"Mr.Burns, I'm so sorr-"

"Smithers!"

"Yes, sir?"

Mr.Burns held his intense and boiling glare into my eyes as I held mine right back at him.

"Give me her papers." he demanded, Smithers obliged.

"What are you going to do? Rip them up in front of me?" I questioned bitterly.

"No, my dear. I'm about to do something worse. Much much worse." Mr.Burns answered, taking my papers in his hands and writing something on them. "You're hired."

My face dropped in shock, "Wait, what?"

"Sir??" Smithers was in even more disbelief than I was.

"I like your spunk. There's a fire in you and I like that in my workers." Mr.Burns explained, something sadistic in his tone. "You think you can handle this job, little miss? You think you can handle me? Well, we'll just see about that." he smiled like the devil as he handed me my application papers with his signature on them and hired now stamped across them.

"I look forward to impressing you, sir." I challenged.

"Ooh, confidence! Let's not get ahead of ourselves now."

"When do I start?"

"Tomorrow, six am. Don't be late." Mr. Burns answered, still something not sitting right with me in his voice.

"Tomorrow, six am. I'll be here." I answered firmly with a determined smile, beginning to now follow Smithers as he opened the doors.

"You'd better be. Oh, and Cabot?"

"Yes?" I turned around facing Mr.Burns again.

"Your dress code will be the same as Smithers here. Proper business attire. I expect nothing less from my personal secretary."

_Personal Secretary._

_Personal Secretary._

_Personal Secretary._

The words rang in my head like a big ben chiming the time in London.

"P-p-personal, what?" I questioned aloud.

"Oh, you didn't know? Mm, off to a bad start already?" Mr.Burns challenged with an evil smirk.

"I thought I was applying for a regular secretarial position?"

"You don't want the job?" he questioned with a dark raised brow.

"I didn't say that."

"Mm, not yet anyway...I expect you properly dressed and on time tomorrow. Now away with you." Mr.Burns motioned his hand to shoo me out of his office.

_Oh, what had I gotten myself into now?_


	2. Six A.M.

I woke up that morning before the sun even rose over Springfield. My roommates Penelope and Melody were the biggest help the night before by offering to let me borrow some clothes from their wardrobes so I could go to work in 'proper business attire', whatever that was. We pieced together a nice button down silk blouse, a blazer jacket with matching pants, a pair of short heels I had laying around, and then I accessorized with random bits of jewelry I figured looked professional enough to pass with a push. After putting on some simple makeup and grabbing a poptart on the way out, I was finally in the car and on my way to the power plant.

Today's the day, the first day of my new job. Can't fudge this up. Can't let that old sexist ass win this.

I soon found myself inside the power plant, my heels clicking against the floor perhaps sounded a bit more feminine than I intended. 

"Cabot?" a familiar voice called out from behind.

I turned with wide eyes, "Mr.Smithers, good morning!" I greeted him.

"Good morning to you too. You look nice today, is that a vintage Don Cherion silk blouse?"

"Oh this? Honestly I'm not entirely sure, it's actually a friend's blouse that I'm borrowing for the day. Um, you know Mr.Burns never mentioned where my office was located the other day."

"Your office?" Smithers questioned before letting out a bit of a chuckle.

I stood there looking at him, confusion clearly on my face.

"Oh, wait. You're serious?" he realized. "You're Mr.Burns' personal secretary. You share your office space with him, same as I do."

"Oh." was all I could find to reply.

Great, old people smell. Everyday. Sounds lovely.

Smithers excused himself promptly to go deal with something or another as I began on my way towards the office I had visited the day prior.

I'm sharing a workspace with an evil senile old man. What is my life anymore?

I took a deep breath and fixed myself into a determined mindset before opening the large double doors.

“Miss Cabot.” Mr.Burns immediately greeted me before I could even catch sight of him inside of his office.

“Good morning, Mr.Burns.” I instinctively chirped with a pleasant smile, he did not return the favor.

“It’s your first day and you’re already three minutes late.” He replied with a bitter glare.

“Late? Why, no I’m not late, sir. It’s six on the dot, it says so on the clock right out in the hallway.” I tried to explain but he shifted the small clock on his desk around to face me with a knowing look of disdain, it read 6:03am.

“Tisk tisk tisk, Miss Cabot.” He smirked through nasty narrow eyes.

“But-“ I caught my own words, realizing nothing I could say in contradiction would matter at this point, “I’m sorry, sir.” I gritted my teeth as I spoke.

“Well, now that you are here you might as well get yourself set up at your new desk.” He spoke dismissively. “Though I wouldn’t get too comfortable at it, if I were you.” He couldn’t help but hiss.

Alright, he’s old and crotchety and possibly demonic levels of evil but he was no different from any of the other highly demanding bosses I’d had before, I could take him. 

“Thank you, sir.” I smiled defiantly back to him ignoring his last statement before turning to look over to the empty desk freshly brought into the large cold office room. It was surprisingly nice, made of wood and stylized in what I’d deem a fancy old fashioned way. A brand new laptop sat atop the desk along with a desk phone, and something else I didn’t quite recognize at first.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Hm? Oh, come now surely you know what a pager is!” Mr.Burns replied, his nose buried in papers.

A pager? What is this, 1995? I silently rolled my eyes as I clipped it to my belt loop. 

“I’m assuming this is linked directly to you?” I cocked a brow at him.

“Do you always chatter so much?” He replied, getting testy.

With a sour expression I sat down at my new desk and began to get acquainted with my new workstation. It was strange, the laptop was so new and top of the line, far nicer than any I’d worked on before, and yet the landline phone sitting next to it looked like a relic from the 2000’s to say nothing of the beeper on my hip. If Burns was willing to spend so much on a desk and laptop like this, maybe I could sway him to update some of the other stuff in time. Well here’s to hoping anyway.

On the laptop was Mr.Burns’ personal schedule; every meeting, conference, event, and dinner all marked down on different dates and times. I was also met with a specialized email inbox and address for my work related emails which currently sat empty aside from two messages. One from the automated ‘welcome to the springfield power plant email provider’ and another from Smithers titled ‘To Do List’.

Oh, here we go.

I clicked to open the email and read the contents…

> _K. Cabot,_
> 
> _Welcome to your first day at your new position as [Personal Secretary] at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Here are a few things to get you started…_
> 
>   * _Organize Mr.Burns’ Daily Planner_
>   * _E-mail the executive board about plans for 3rd cooling tower_
>   * _Schedule meeting with Boris Harlman_
>   * _Answer 4 o’clock phone call from Chesterfield Shipping_
>   * _Message me back with menu requests from Amy._
>   * _Do everything Mr.Burns tells you to do and do it fast!_
> 

> 
> _Signed,_
> 
> _Smithers_
> 
> _(555) 555 - 4013_
> 
> _[ smithers@springfieldenergy.com ](mailto:smithers@springfieldenergy.com) _

Oh wow, okay that’s a lot to take in but nothing I can’t handle. Organize Mr. Burns’ Daily Planner? I saw his monthly schedule before and it seemed organized enough? I clicked over to the schedule and opened a random day, which brought up a more detailed view of that specific date. Now I saw the problem. The dates and times were all wrong. 4am dinner? Sunday golfing on tuesday at 11pm? Oh shit, this was a mess. Ok this would take time, I’d have to organize this throughout the day so I might as well get everything else done before that 4pm call later on. What else?

Email the executive board, okay no problem. I opened up a new message and started the header of the email...wait a second, what was it even supposed to say? Cooling Tower Number 3 sounds like a rad idea?? Who was I even supposed to send it to, I didn’t have an executive board address to send it to.

I looked up to Mr.Burns at his desk, still busying himself with his own work of...well, whatever he was doing. I opened my mouth to ask him but then thought better of it. No, I can do this. I just need to figure it out. What else was there?

Schedule a meeting with Boris Harlman. Okay well at least I can google search the name and maybe find a method of contact through that? Oh, why didn’t Smithers just give me the contact information? Why was everything so outdated and messed up? Why were they expecting me to instantly know who these people were that they were talking about? Who the hell even is Amy and what’s this about a menu?

I slunk in my chair a bit, a headache beginning to form in my skull. This wasn’t going to be as easy as I had thought.


End file.
